10 July 2016

Sharp Practice: Escorting the General

Last night we had our 3rd game in as many weeks here in Montreal and I finally got to participate in a game of Sharp Practice using version 2. I did not play myself but refereed the game between Iannick and Rusti. Both players were unacquainted with TFL rules in general but were very well acquainted with the FIW rulesets and history. We had all previously played Muskets and Tomahawks and This Very Ground. I have enjoyed both these rulesets but I was looking forward to SP2 as it uses very similar mechanisms as Dux Brit and Chain of Command. I like the command and control mechanism in TFL games and I have to say as I get older it is much easier to play multiple rulesets if they all have similar mechanisms.

We played the Escort Scenario, with the English being the escorting force and the French being the attacking force. The French were the Raiding Party from the rulebook (49 points corrected) and the English had a made up force of 3 Status II leaders, 2 units of Colonial Rangers and 2 units of Indian allies (48 points). For supports the English increased 2 of the leaders to Status III and took a preacher. The French took a second deployment point and a mobile deployment point as well as elevating one of their leaders to status III.

The English started in sector 1 and had 2 free moves, while unfortunately the French ended up in their sector 4. The starting morale for the English was 11 and for the French 9. I believe we got through 4-5 card decks before the French morale failed. One thing noted was that the tiffin card ended up near the bottom of the deck in all the turns so there was a lot of card play.

We really had no problems with the movement, firing and fisticuffs mechanisms and were able to use the unit characteristics and card functions without difficulty. The game was quite smooth and both players enjoyed themselves.

I did not take a whole lot of photos but I did take some.

We are looking up the board here from the British edge (the escorting party). I the middle of the photo you can see the red-coated personage Colonel Blimp. To the left are the British allied Indians. The colonel is with 2 units of Colonial Rangers. In the far group on the hill to the left are the Coureurs de Bois, some Milice Canadien are in the middle. The French were a bit unfortunate in getting their primary deployment (wagon on right edge) in the segment next to the British launching point. With 2 free moves the British were a third of the way up the board.

A unit of French Allied Hurons (right) bearing down on the Colonial Rangers with some Mohawk in support, the colonel is starting to sweat.

One of the major encounters of the game between a unit of Rangers and Milice about to happen, it headed up with both units being annihilated , but the Ranger winning by one but routing because of shock with the colonel. By now the French Morale was down to zero, so maybe a marginal British win.

Well it was a fun game and I look forward top my next. I did have some simple questions and comments that were quickly answered on the TFL forum.

John, that's a great looking game and I have been looking at FIW figure ranges since reading your last post on SP2. Been looking again at the first edition and am just wondering what the main changes are to the new edition? I'm interested in this period so will probably pick up the second edition anyway.

Looks to have been a fun game. We played SP last weekend as well and had a great time. Cavalry can be powerful but brittle and we really liked the Command mechanism (especially the tension of using the Command cards during the turn or holding them for activations after the Tiffin). Glad you're having a nice time in Montreal as well.